What are Key Tips in Word 2010?

KeyTip?  5 minutes ago I had no idea what that was.  So much so, that I thought, well, it can’t be that important if I haven’t heard of them before…such a little thing, but oh-so-useful.

What is a KeyTip? Well, it’s another name for a keyboard shortcut using your Ribbon.

In Word 2010, I can access KeyTips by pressing the Alt key. Then I can use my keyboard to select the key letter of the tab I want to use.  (and it gives my hand a break from using the mouse).

If I want to change a whole paragraph to bold using KeyTips, I select the text that I want to edit.

I press Alt, which brings up the keys I can use to complete my task.  I press H on my keyboard to get to the Home menu, then KeyTips appear in the home tab…so I can press 1.

To summarise in actions…I’ve selected text, pressed Alt, then H then 1.

I’ve learned when changing from Word 2003 to 2010, a few moments exploring can result in getting a useful tool that will make my work easier.  Sometimes I even experience a little moment of IT pride ” oh, yeah, I use that  all the time, don’t you?”

KeyTips are part of Introduction level Microsoft Word Training.

 

 

Better looking Word documents – lists to tables

Converting a list into a table for a better looking Word document

I make a lot of lists.  They are useful for quick references within a text, and often I used to type a list and spend too much time making it all fit.  This often left the list looking a bit scrappy, almost like it is hanging in the text, with no real place.

A table, however, has a much clearer status!  It looks professional, stands out more, and helps the reader access the key information quickly.

So here is my sample document that needs a bit of help.

List to change to table Word 2010

Excel training Screenshot from Insert menu select convert text to table Word 2010
Screenshot after selecting Insert menu, then convert text to table option. I’m now selecting one column…
Plain table Word 2010
The plain table from the initial conversion. Time for jazzing up.

What I want to do now, is select the list and use the convert to table option.  In Word 2010, I highlight the list, and then go to the Insert menu.  I then select the table button, and from the drop down menu, I chose the convert text to table button.  Fortunately for me, this defaults to the setting that fits.

I can then change the table to fit in with  my document.

So the initial result is a rather plain, but tidy table.

But I’m going to jazz it up using the pre-set styles in the Design tab on the ribbon.  So my table now looks like this…

style applied to simple table Word 2010
The table now has a simple style applied, using the Design tab.